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Matthew Patay's
Note of the Month
September 2007
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Map and flag images provided by Graphic Maps
This month's featured note
is from Croatia.
The denomination is 100 Kuna and the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money
(SCWPM) Number is P-32a.
The note is dated 1993(1994) but was first issued in 1994.
_f-550.jpg)
(front)
The banknote is red-brown and brown-orange on multicolored underprint.
Ivan Mažuranić (1814-1890)), a
Croatian poet, linguist and politician is at right.
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The following information
was obtained from:
Wikipedia the online
Encyclopedia
Ivan Mažuranić
(1814-1890)
(For the full article, please refer to
the link above.)
Ivan Mažuranić (1814-1890) was a Croatian poet, linguist and politician—probably the most important figure in Croatia's cultural life in the mid-19th century. Mažuranić was born into a well-to-do yeoman family in a region found today in northern coastal Croatia. He became a man of many abilities: he spoke 9 languages and was well versed in astronomy and mathematics. His realistic assessment of strengths and weaknesses of Croatia's position between the hammer of Austrian bureaucracy and the anvil of Hungarian expansionist nationalism served his country invaluably in times of political turmoil. Mažuranić is best remembered for the "triple accomplishment"—contributions in economics, linguistics, and poetry.
Politics and economy
Mažuranić was the first Croatian ban not to hail from old nobility, as he was born a commoner. He accomplished the Croatian transition from a semifeudal legal and economic system to a modern civil society similar to those emerging in other countries in central Europe. Mažuranić has modernized Croatia's educational system by forming public schools network and reducing the importance of denominational schools; a process seen by some later Serbian ideologues as an intentional blow to the integrity of Serbdom in Croatian lands. Others consider this to have been a necessary step in modernization and secularization of Croatian society.
Linguistics
His linguistic work is remarkable for its enormous influence. Mažuranić's "German-Illyrian/Croatian Dictionary", 1842 (coauthored with Josip Užarević) is at the very heart of modern Croatian civilization, since in this 40,000-entry dictionary the principal author Mažurani? had coined words that have become commonplace in standard Croatian—for instance, Croatian words for bank accountancy, rhinoceros, sculptor, ice-cream, market economy, high treason or metropolis. He was much more than "language-recorder"; "language-shaper" would be a better description.
Poetry
But, in his native land, Mažuranić is above all the beloved poet of Smrt Smail age Ćengića—"Death of Smail aga Ćengić", 1845. This epic poem is full of memorable verses that have become embedded in the national memory of his people, who cherished it as the treasure of a "Homeric" wisdom praising such epic virtues as fortitude, fidelity and justice.
The tale is based on an assault in Montenegro, when a petty local Muslim tyrant was killed, as an act of vendetta, in an ambush set by Montenegrins. Mažuranić's poetry transformed a rather prosaic act of tribal revenge into a hymn celebrating the struggle for freedom—acted out under the hostile forces of fatality.
“The angry aga glumly
glances
As he, the mighty lion, is forced
To admire the mountain mouse.”
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_b-550.jpg)
(back)
The church of St. Vitus in Rijeka is at left center and a plan of the church is
at center.
The following information
was obtained from:
The Tourist
Association of the city of Rijeka
The church of St. Vitus in
Rijeka
(For the full article, please refer to
the link above.)
Passing through the historic northern city gate beneath the bell tower of the former Jesuit church, and today cathedral Church of St. Vitus, you re-enter the Old Town. This elevated site in the then densely built urban surroundings was chosen for the building site of the church of St. Vitus, on the spot where a former smaller church of the same saint, patron saint of the city, was found. In their Counter-Reformation aspirations, the Jesuits decided to use the cult of the Miraculous Crucifix from the old church, which, according to the legend, started bleeding when a certain Petar Lon?ari?, angered by a gambling loss, threw a stone at it. The investment was made possible by the generous donation of Ursula von Thanhausen, a countess who donated her lands around Rijeka. The construction of the new church started in 1638 according to the design of the Jesuit architect G. Briani. He drew his inspiration, among other buildings, from the Santa Maria della Salute in Venice. As the investment surpassed the local resources, the building continued for a whole century, and was probably even never fully completed, if we are to judge from the surfaces on its facade that have never been covered in stone. A significant change to the design was brought in 1725, when the constructor B. Martinuzzi added a gallery to the church. An anecdote has it that this was due to the investors' wish not to mix the religious novices with the plebs, especially young girls, during liturgy. The interior of the church is a true Baroque Gesamtkunstwerk, a unity of style that perturbs the Early Gothic crucifix, imbedded in the middle of the main altar. The authors of the profuse marble Baroque sculptures in the interior are masters P. Lazzarini, A. Michelazzi and L. Pacassi. St. Vitus’ is a unique Baroque rotunda of such monumental dimensions built in Croatia. The church is the only remaining part of a once vast Jesuit complex that included a seminary and a college, but was demolished in the period between the two world wars. The portal of the College has been preserved, however, by being transferred to the deanery next to St. Vitus'. By the main portal of St. Vitus' a cannonball was built into the wall, accompanied by a humorous inscription in Latin, which reads:
ISTA DABAT GALLOS PVLSVRA HINC ANGLIA POMA
Its translation is as follows: This fruit was sent to us by England when it wanted to oust the Gauls from here. This inscription is a testimony of an episode in the Napoleonic wars from 1813. As it is a chronogram, the year can be deciphered by interpreting the larger letters as Roman numbers. The permanent exhibition of Jesuit heritage, mounted on the gallery, can be visited by appointment with the office of the cathedral.----------
For more information about the Croatia visit:
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